2015 Image-Based Biomedical Modeling (IBBM) summer course

Didactic lecture sessions given by the three PIs as well as four invited instructors and experts in their fields .

Laboratory exercises led by a group of 10 teaching assistants and developers.

Discussion session time for student-instructor interaction.

A visit to the experimental and computational laboratory facilities at the University of Utah, College of Engineering to give the participants an overview of the general academic background and research projects performed at the university.

IBBM is a dedicated two-week course in the area of image-based modeling and simulation applied to bioelectricity and biomechanics, providing participants with training in the numerical methods, image analysis, visualization, and computational tools necessary to carry out end-to-end, image-based, subject-specific simulations in either bioelectricity or orthopedic biomechanics. The course focuses on using freely available, open-source software developed under the research of the CIBC (P41 GM103545) and FEBio suite (RO1 GM083925). Students use this software to learn and apply the complete dataflow pipeline to particular sets of data with specific goals.

The IBBM summer course hosted 47 participants this year: 30 graduate students, 6 postdoctoral fellows, 4 faculty, 4 academic staff members, and 2 engineers from industry. Participants came from 29 institutions, including universities in Poland, Germany, France, Spain, England, Peru, and Ecuador. The format included lectures/labs on topics of common interest (e.g., image processing, visualization, geometry processing, and numerical methods) presented to the entire group and then parallel tracks in bioelectricity (18 participants) and biomechanics (29 participants). The group this year was remarkably diverse in their backgrounds: academically, professionally, and even culturally. Participants included a teaching specialist, a few undergraduate students, and two professionals from major companies in the field (Medtronic, Inc. and Boston Scientific Corp), which broadened the exposure of the biomedical image-based modeling course to a wider audience.

One of the highlights was the visit to the University of Utah for a day: the participants were taken on a tour of the SCI Institute in the Warnock Engineering Building (WEB) and the Sorenson Molecular Biotechnology Building (SMBB). This trip included several of the regularly programmed lectures followed by brief demonstrations and lectures from SCI Institute faculty and graduate students, exposing participants to a wider range of applications and research areas not covered in the course lectures.In addition to conventional classroom training, this course covered three important academic mentoring concepts: Simulation Study Design, Grant Strategy, and Responsible Conduct of Research. Each of these lectures presented participants with tools for how to design statistically relevant studies, write and submit grants, and perform ethical and responsible research. The format of the Grant Strategy session was a panel discussion and included guest lecturers. The students frequently guided the discussion into broad domains of career decisions and management.

Finally, this year's Keynote Speakers are outstanding researchers in the biomedical fields who made an impression on the students as well as increasing their networks.